More grisaille

I dyed 12 pieces of fabric in grey yesterday. This one is my favourite...
It reminds me of this picture I took a few years ago in Beijing hutongs.
Here are my other dyed pieces, nicely ironed.
Last week, I bought 4 or 5 very large cotton bedsheets in a thrift shop, and this is what I used as fabric for my dyeing session of yesterday. I am always amazed at how well this old fabric takes up the dye.
I have probably abandoned the idea of adding a dash of pink to my grey fabrics. Now I'm thinking green and yellow (or gold)...
Most probably because of this picture...
My biggest problem with the fabric piece at the top of this post is that it's about 20x20, which means I'll have to cut it up if I want to use it for the 12x12 challenge.

Creative Computing

At last, I'm done with my first assessment piece for my Creative Computing course....
I had to produce a digital image to be used for the cover of a sketchbook.
The image is entirely computer generated with PSP, using my seaside pictures as inspiration. I didn't have to make the sketchbook myself, but I did. The book with be used to store my favourite pictures of the sea.
Yesterday, I worked on the images I plan to use in the next module of the course (only 2 modules to go!). These are pictures I took in China last year, and sketches and prints I made from them.
When I was finished, I had some paint leftovers. So, I played a bit more with my brushes and watercolour paper...

Blue sky over Beijing

Maybe we were lucky...
but the sky was often blue over Beijing when we were there...

Illumination

Our new theme at Twelve by Twelve is "Illumination". It was chosen by Brenda.
To me, it says buddhism, meditation, awareness...
So, yesterday, I worked on the computer with one of my new pictures. Here is one of the results...

And another one...
I also carved a few printing blocks. I have to do this for the Creative Computing Course I'm taking at DesignMatters.
One of the shapes I did is a very simple sitting buddha... I did lots of prints with this block. One of my prints is posted on the Twelve by Twelve blog.
And here's another one...
Next, I combined it with my digital images.
This is one of the pictures I've saved... I rather like it...

More about my trip

A few pictures taken on the beautiful campus of Beijing University... And, because I know my blog has been almost fiber-free these days, here are some of the goodies I bought in Beijing...

Droplets

This is my 12x12 water quilt. I took a picture of dew droplets some time ago in my garden. I liked it so much that I played a lot with it on my computer. For this quilt, the manipulated image was printed on banana paper. I then bonded the paper on homedyed blue green fabric. The background fabric is also homedyed. I added a few silvery beads, because they made me think of tiny droplets.
I've printed the picture and other versions of it on several different surfaces. But I didn't have time to work with them, because I was preparing my trip to China. Maybe I'll do it later.
Here's a detail of the quilt...
More pictures on the Twelve by Twelve blog. And of course all the other 12x12 quilts are there too!
And because my brain is still in Beijing, here are a few pictures of water I took there...

I'm back

We came back yesterday night from China. It was a wonderful trip. Beijing is a fascinating city, Chinese people are very friendly and helpful, and the cultural heritage is impressive.
I spent so much time preparing this trip... But it was really worth doing it!
... Now, I just need to recover...